


Silent and Evergreen

by TheOneWhoStayed



Series: Camellia Blossoms [2]
Category: Twilight Series - All Media Types, Twilight Series - Stephenie Meyer
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, But he's Bella's idiot now, Carlisle is an idiot, F/M, Fairy Tale Curses, Fairy Tale Elements, Falling In Love, Happy Ending, Original not required Reading, Skip the first one if you just wanna be happy, Vampire Turining, You heard me, accidentally in love, eternal love, fanfiction of my own fanfiction, no beta we die like men
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-27
Updated: 2020-08-27
Packaged: 2021-03-07 00:21:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,283
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26147836
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheOneWhoStayed/pseuds/TheOneWhoStayed
Summary: Isabella Swan was dying of a blood disease of which there was no cure, at least, in 1814 there wasn't.Dr. Cullen brought her books and laid them by the flowers her father always gifted her every 3 days.One night, while sitting by the hearth... Carlisle breaks.And this becomes a fairy tale.[AKA A redux of 'The Flower Without Fragrance': Wherein Colonel Brandon falls in love with Eleanor Dashwood]
Relationships: Carlisle Cullen/Bella Swan
Series: Camellia Blossoms [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1898770
Comments: 15
Kudos: 105





	Silent and Evergreen

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [The Flower Without Fragrance](https://archiveofourown.org/works/26099317) by [TheOneWhoStayed](https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheOneWhoStayed/pseuds/TheOneWhoStayed). 



> You don't have to read the original to understand this since a GOOD chunk of the start is just COPY PASTED.
> 
> Those of you who have read the original, here's a version from a universe slightly to the left.

He met her when Charles and Renee Swan admitted their daughter to the care of Dr. Wood's practice.

Isabella swan was a frail girl who had fought death the majority of her life and Carlisle could see it in her very bones, every sinew of her muscles that she'd beat it off like a hero of Greek myth.

The Swans had nowhere else to go and Carlisle could only watch as his Mentor Dr. Woods informed them that their journey across the territories had practically been for naught. As there was no cure, which meant there could only be an easing of the girl's passing.

Carlisle had seen it so many times.

In his 151 inhuman years the Vampire had the opportunity to see death a myriad of times in countless ways. He'd even wished for it to come upon himself. More than any creature ever should.

Really, Isabella Swan was no special case.

She had no hidden fire or zest for life secreted in her eyes wich would be a tragedy to stamp out.

Carlisle had no inkling what she would become to him.

How precious.

How dear.

How so very loved.

Those first days of her stay in the clinic were filled with silence and if his senses weren't so keen as to be able to hear her heart beating, her lungs wheezing, Carlisle may have thought she'd fled into the unknown.

By the end of the week, Dr. Woods even appeared to forget about the mousy brown headed girl with her too big eyes and rasping voice. Unlike the other patient she never complained or requested aide, more food, warmer water, colder water, another blanket for the icy night.

And in her silence Carlisle heard her practically screaming.

His yellow eyes turned to her, the girl who was silent and appeared to be content to simply lay there and die.

Only, when he looked.

Carlisle found something worth staring at.

Because Isabella Swan read the same book everyday.

Judging by the location she was at each time he came in to the room and provided her medications, the girl was reading the novel over and over every two days. Clock work, as if she lingered in the same passages and perhaps always took breaks in the same scenes.

Something inside of him sparked as she placed it down every night by the bouquet of red flowers her Father brought every 3 days.

Not being a shy man, and always happy to make conversation with those relying on him, Carlisle asked as he handed her the tincture she'd been prescribed for her ails,

"What flowers are these? I have never seen or smelled anything quite like them."

Isabella looked at him as if he were an apparition and Carlisle supposed he deserved it as the world seemed keen to leave her alone in her silence. Instead of keeping her quiet though, the girl rasped out softly,

"They are camellias. My father brings them because they are my favorite. I understand them, as they too have no fragrance."

He would have protested the second part, but his Vampiric senses likely informed him of a level of smell that humans could not register. For their scent was heady as they coated the aroma of her rather alluring blood.

"I see," he replied but she looked at him as if he did not, in fact 'see'. An opinion which Carlisle was beginning to feel that perhaps she was correct in, as her deep brown eyes stared into him like they knew more than he did

As awkward of a beginning as that had been, it was the first of their conversations.

Carlisle could no longer bear the rather pitiful display of Isabella reading the same book and he had a suspicion that she would never ask for another one from her parents so, against all sense, he found himself laying one of his own novels next to the camellia blossoms while the girl slept.

That time, when he arrived to administer her tinctures, she was devouring the new book.

So started a rather strange dance.

She would finish the book and as soon as Carlisle realized that she was once more reading her old one, he exchanged the novel he'd donated for a different tome.

It was when he left 'Self-Control' on the table that Isabella ceased feigning sleep and asked, "Why do you leave me books Dr. Cullen? It's truly not necessary."

"I enjoy it," Carlisle replied easily and he found it was truthful, "I have read through my entire collection and sharing a book is easily more fulfilling than sharing a conversation about trivial matters.

"A persons favorite book can tell you who they are."

"Then I shall say my favorite book is our Lord's Holy word so you may not think ill of me," Isabella replied and Carlisle found himself chuckling. Genuinely entertained by this girl's strange wit.

"Name a book and will bring it," He offered and had determined in himself then and there that should she name a tome he did not own, Carlisle would purchase it.

Isabella gazed at him blearily, clearly still tired from resting as she sighed delicately, "I would not intrude on your generosity."

And proceeded to keep refusing to request another book.

It was strange.

Carlisle couldn't help but feel her a mysterious creature of silence that kept being over looked by everyone but him.

Like her flowers she claimed had no fragrance which only he could smell perfectly.

They went on and on with him bringing her books until one day Carlisle had grown a tad frustrated with her refusal to make a request of him. Perhaps it was from his need to feed, the thirst was beginning to burn in his throat, and irritation came easily in those days before his second century when his Blood Lust had not fully faded. Whatever the reason or factors, Carlisle pressed a little more aggressively that day,

"Why is it you insist on refusing my kindness of bringing you a novel you actually desire?"

Isabella's eyes were wide as they stared at him a bit, more in surpise than fear as she took a heavy breath and confessed,

"Perhaps I am simply attempting to get to know your own preferences. I am not as well read as you seem to believe, though I do wish I was.

"My true passion as a child was dancing."

"And you stopped when you fell ill?" Carlisle felt his irritation fade as he scolded himself for acting so brusquely with a girl who couldn't be more than 17.

"My lessons ceased because I was horrid. Perhaps I was diagnosed but a week later, but I am sure it had no bearing on my lack of skill."

He could see it then..

Suddenly like dawn breaking over the mountains. A girl who had once asked for something she did not truly need and had been punished cruelly by the powers that be to die slowly. Painfully.

It was enough to scare the faith out of any child.

All he could do was keep bringing her books.

And Carlisle's heart sinned.

Because as he stared into the fire in his hearth, one which he set only so his neighbors did not grow suspicious, Carlisle recalled a very horrific thing he'd once fancied.

To Create for himself a companion.

In the early, loneliest of years, Carlisle had considered it like a distant fantasy. Never had he considered a young girl. In his mind it was always a younger man to mentor, perhaps even call brother as they traveled. A friend and confidant.

But Isabella spoke to him of books and devoured his library like nothing he'd ever seen before. She was nearly perfectly suited to be a young niece or daughter.... A companion who appreciated the written works and stories penned from the Human soul.

Carlisle put the fire out that night and in another world he perhaps prayed to God to take the temptation away from him.

In another life, had he been stronger, perhaps he'd have watched her die.

But that night? There was something wild about a night with a full moon. Enough so that Carlisle Cullen broke under the weight of his loneliness as he did not think. No, he did not spare a second to allow himself to feel guilty or angry, not even scared as he donned his coat before heading into the cold dark night.

It was madness as he trudged forwards and made his plans while walking towards the clinic, as if fate and time were working against him. There was some invisible force weighing him down but Carlisle did not care.

He did not care.

He allowed himself to be selfish in that one moment because Isabella had never even lived.

Oh, Carlisle had seen her chart, the file which spelled out her life of pain and suffering which began at the tender age of 7.

A whole life completely unlived and the poor girl had the dignity, the poise, as well as the complete elegance to silently suffer and die because there was no saving her. By the time he reached the nearly silent Clinic, Carlisle was half mad with it.

There was a plan half cobbled that he'd constructed though.

And it was imperative to stick with it if he was to steal into the night unseen and unharassed by the staff. He took care not to breath, and Carlisle allowed himself to creep into the clinic using his skills as a predator.

Stalking the night and it was nearly evil, sinister, yet his mind would not delve into the horrified guilt or self recriminations until much later.

No.

At that moment Carlisle allowed himself to utilize every inhuman ability he required to sneak into Isabella's room. He knew the way by heart, and something whispered in his mind that even if his Vampiric memory was not perfect, that he would still know it.

Quietly he crept into the room she slept within and Carlisle was struck by the sound of her heart beating, her lungs ragged in her delicate chest.

A moon beam fell through her window and lit her up like a sleeping angel. Isabella's hair like a halo spread around her, as her chest rose and fell with difficulty. Her pale nearly paper thin skin was practically translucent with the illness which had plagued her since childhood.

Carlisle tread lightly across the floor before his shadow ghosted across her bed and he took Isabella Swan in.

Truly saw her vulnerable and for the first time she looked truly as if she might break under the weight of the light which illuminated her.

And he realized...

That her strength was an illusion.

All that might he'd seen in her which had clearly beat back her death constantly was not in her body but the soul which inhabited it.

Sparing a moment to slip both her book and his own into his coat, Carlisle tenderly gathered the girl into his arms and only froze when her eyes fluttered opened.

It was shocking, that he had not heard her body stirring to wakefulness, but it spoke to how weak she'd grown, how short a time she truly had left in the world.

Wide brown eyes found his own gold as Isabella rasped out quietly, as if she realized he was sneaking about,

"Oh... oh..."

Tears began filling her eyes as he cradled her closely, his cold frozen heart ached as he lightly hissed as carefully as he could manage, "Miss Swan please trust me, I am attempting to save you but I cannot do it here."

"I know," her lungs rattled harshly in her chest but it was secret and quiet as Isabella said words which would give him courage for his entire existence,

"I simply did not think you would choose me. That you would cherish me so dearly that you would ask for my eternity.

"It is yours.... It is yours Dr. Cullen..."

In that instant, she clung to him with a surprising strength.

Such a terrifying thing it was to be known, but Carlisle in that moment found it comforting. For Isabella knew...

Somehow she knew and the girl had consented, she had granted him all of her tomorrows. The power of it was sufficient to steel his resolve as Carlisle stole away with her into the night.

Later he would return under the cover of dark for his books and father's cross, but that night under the cloudless sky with a million stars shining down, lighting his path through the thicket, Carlisle ran.

Isabella clutching to him desperately as he took her deep into the forest where he kept a cabin for quick escapes.

In case of a friend visiting or perhaps even suspicion falling on him too heavily.

There he lay Isabella on a the couch as the home possessed no beds, for he had no cause for such a thing. Carlisle nearly felt as if lighting had struck him with the rush of excitement which was crashing through his veins.

He was nearly vibrating with it as he knelt down and took Isabella's hand into his own.

"This is going to be painful, God forgive me but your heart is strong, and you will survive the torment required to become like me."

"Nothing could be as wretched as having been dying since the age of 7," Isabella was grinding her teeth as the wild flurry of the night had her lungs working far more than they should ever be permitted,

"I will suffer all things if I can spend forever with you."

_She loved him._

He realized in that moment.

And oh what a thing to realize that she, of course, would have never said it. Isabella never asked for anything after all, and what could be greater demand than the request for another's love?

Carlisle had acted though.

Displayed his own feelings openly as he broke his own rules to save this girl because he could not envision a future where she died and he continued on alone.

It was like waking up.

Right there, kneeling before her.

That Isabella, with her rather odd obsession with the difference shades of dirt and her disapproval of the majority of A Lady's endings. Her peculiar notions of love had led this fragile, dying human girl with a heart made of gold and edged with silver to turn her eyes upon him and...

She _loved_ him.

Someone so pure and good loved him, knowing full well what he was.

The affection he possessed for her, his longing for her companionship, it shifted as he realized the true depth of her capacity of acceptance.

And God help him, in that very moment, his heart burst opened as something new within it bloomed.

Strangely it felt like a camellia blossom.

Leaning over her trembling form Carlisle pressed his forehead to her's, knowing his chilled temperature would not bother her for much longer as he experienced the change within him which would never be altered.

Never be taken back.

Never wilt or die.

For that was the nature of his kind.

And Isabella's love for him would be sealed the moment her heart stopped beating, cast in crystal and eternal as the moon which lit up the night sky.

Isabella was bold then, as she strained herself and lightly pressed her lips to his. Carlisle exhaled slowly so that he would not reciprocate, he needed every ounce of control and regulation for what was about to be done.

"Do not fret," he made as valiant of an attempt as he could to assure this young woman who had just become his entire universe in the span of just a moment,

"We shall be together soon."

With that he shifted lower so he was capable of pressing his lips to her neck in a mockery of a lover's caress as the man opened his mouth and bit down into her neck. It was monstrous and required a strength he had never known himself to posses as Carlisle pulled himself from her.

Initial gush of her blood coating his mouth as he covered it desperately, nearly praying that he had not been too forceful and caused tearing.

It was horrifying to feel relief the moment Isabella began to scream, her heart pounding with violence as she wailed. His Venom rushing into her.

And Carlisle closed his eyes.

At last guilt found him.

But he could not find it in himself to regret it.

In his travels, Carlisle Cullen learned that Shakespeare was correct in his belief that there were indeed more things in heaven and earth than are dreamed within the common man's philosophy.

Not simply because he himself was a Vampire.

No, that was only partially it. But Carlisle had learned of Magics, Werewolves, and Shape-Shifters as he walked the world.

And until his dying day he truly believed that Isabella had been cursed. She would whisper to him later, when she was a Newborn, about her theory of it.

She had asked for dance lessons at 7 and she had fallen ill with death but a week later, but that was only the greatest in her line of evils which befell her.

Isabella informed him with such fear that once, at the age of 10 she had asked for a blanket simply because she was uncomfortable and the thing had ended up being infested with bugs which tormented her for a month as they dug into her skin.

Then at 12 she dared it again, as she requested hotter water for her bath only for the nurse to be neglectful and burn the poor child with over heated liquid. A mistake which led to nearly a year of torment.

She then requested a visit from her grandfather at age 14, via a letter and the man had been beset by bandits on his journey home.

He died in agony.

Isabella did not ask for anything again.

Carlisle was convince thoroughly, that someway, some how the girl had been cursed by a dark creature or spirit to suffer if she should ask for anything. For that sacred night which he fell in love with her and gifted her freely with immortality...

Isabella had never requested a moment of it.

He had given her himself and a new life of his own volition.

At first he had thought perhaps it was her technical death which had saved her from the curse, but Isabella had another theory entirely as she gazed up at him golden eyed and more radiant than any creature he'd ever beheld before, in her warm voice declared,

"I have always believed that my curse was broken by your act of true love."

And Carlisle believed.

Oh how he believed.

For she was a blessing sent from God himself. A woman crafted for him as her Newborn months were spent practically languishing together.

She was so different than all the other Newborns he had ever known or been told of as Isabella's temper was practically even and her control was on par with a Vampire of nearly a decade. Truly, she was a gift for him.

God granting her as a sign that his self denial and life of struggle was truly to be rewarded so long as he maintain the holy path. For how could she not be? She was vast and contained worlds in her capacity to accept others, while possessing a Shield that only protected, never harmed.

Surely the woman was truly crafted just for him.

Nothing and no one could ever manage to convince him otherwise.


End file.
